Phyllo Panem
Phyllo Panem is a character from the medieval game universe, though he did not appear in the game itself. Born in the kingdom of Valzaim in southwestern Avani, he was abducted as a child to serve as a blank slave in Meltaim, before ultimately eloping with Zuzanna Gorski and fleeing to Kyth. In spite of the extraordinary circumstances that surround him, Phyllo is a simple soul, and once settling in Kyth choses the humble profession of baker, living a very simple and domestic life. Backstory Phyllo was born in a small village in the Galfras Mountains of northern Valzaim. His father, Stephanos Panem, and grandfather were both bakers of some talent, taking their surname "Panem" from the Valzick word for bread. As a child Phyllo wanted nothing more from his life than to follow after them and run the family bakery. However, fate had other plans. When Phyllo was eight years old, his village was attacked by raiders from the kingdom of Meltaim in the north. His parents were both murdered in the raid, and Phyllo was abducted- never to see his home or infant sister again. Once in Meltaim, Phyllo was branded as a blank; a nonmage, which according to the dogma of Meltaim meant Phyllo was a servile being with no soul. As with all blanks abducted from other countries, Phyllo was auctioned off into slavery. He ended up being bought by a man named Jozef Niemec, who ran a service to rent out blanks for ritual bloodletting for both magic and religious rituals. The eight year old immediately began a rigorous conditioning program designed to kill his natural instinct to flinch or cry out when he was in pain, and desensitize him to blood and bleeding. By the time he was ten years old his master deigned him ready to be bled in formal ceremonies- and his first bleed was scheduled for the benefit of the margrave of the province. While at the bleeding, Phyllo went against his training, crying with pain and beseeching the room silently to save him. None cared for his distress except one little girl- the margrave's daughter and heir, Zuzanna. She became upset at his pain, and even very briefly met young Phyllo's eyes. This cemented her in Phyllo's memory, he only Meltaiman who evidenced any compassion for him. Years passed, and Phyllo came to accept his lot in life. He sustained his sanity with a bottomless well of loathing for the mages of Meltaim, but to their faces maintained a politely subservient mask. When Phyllo was fifteen his master gave him permission to wander the city of Pastora and earn money for himself at odd jobs. Out of a desperate, longing sense of nostalgia, Phyllo gravitated towards a bakery in a rundown area of the city and started doing errands for the owners- the Stareks. One day at the bakery he met a thirteen year old girl named Zuzia, who seemed to recognize Phyllo and over the course of several meetings offered him her help and kindness as much as she could. It wasn't until he was again called upon to be bled for the margrave that Phyllo realized who his benefactor was; Zuzanna the margrave's heir who he had briefly locked eyes with at his first bleed. Zuzia explained that she was only the margrave's adopted daughter. Her real parents were the Stareks, the family that owned the bakery. Zuzia was born with archmage powers, and it was deigned that such power did not belong in a baker's family. Her soul must have been misdelivered, meant to be born to the margrave. So he "adopted" her, more or less stealing Zuzia from her parents at age four. She could only see her real mother and father for a few hours at a time once or twice a week. Caught between two worlds, Zuzia valued Phyllo as a confidante she could trust without fearing judgement or punishment for saying the wrong thing. Though Phyllo was intimated by her rank, he decided to keep up his blooming friendship with Zuzanna. A friendship that would become a romance, and ultimately drive the slave and the archmage to make a desperate flight across all of Avani for the sake of their freedom. Appearances * Only Magic ** Prologue: Blood and Iron - At ten years old, Phyllo is rented out for his first bleed at an event being hosted by the Margrave, or high lord, of Daire province in Meltaim. Terrified, he sobs through the rites, drawing the eye of a particular little girl in the crowd... ** Arc One: Swapped Souls - Five years after Blood and Iron, Phyllo is now a teenager. He has a chance meeting with Zuzanna Gorski, daughter of the Margrave and the girl from his first bleed. Against all Meltaiman dogma and custom she is kind to him. The two of them strike up a friendship... that slowly grows into more than friendship. ** Arc Two: Desperate Measures - Zuzanna is betrothed to the spoiled slimeball nephew of the emperor- but she is in love with the blank slave Phyllo. Meanwhile, Phyllo is under constant threat from his master Jozef after he witnesses the death of a ten year old bleeder and acts out for it. Zuzia and Phyllo make a fateful decision- to flee Meltaim for lands to the east. ** Arc Three: A New Leaf - After a harrowing nine month journey across Avani, Phyllo and Zuzanna have arrived in Kyth. Their Meltaiman pursuers are far behind, and a new life together seems within their grasp- Zuzanna is even pregnant with Phyllo's child. They aren't safe yet, though, as a careless slip of their real identities draws the attention of the Kythian authorities- and lands them in the reluctant custody of one Leif Jade. * Ripple Effect - Phyllo and Zuzia have been living in Kyth for over a year, raising their infant daughter Sylvia and saving up for Phyllo to learn to be a baker. However, things get complicated for them again when Zuzanna reveals that they have a second child on the way... Personality Phyllo is a very quiet, reserved man. Never one to make decisions lightly or jump to conclusions, he is very often a calming agent and voice of reason for those he is close to. This is helped by the fact that in spite of his uneducated background, Phyllo is far smarter than most people give him credit for. He thinks well on his feet, improvising creative solutions to problems even under extreme stress. It takes a very long time to fully win his trust, given everything he has experienced, but to those he does trust and care for the reserved shell peels back to reveal a sweet, patient person with no dearth of affection for his loved ones. Sadly, Phyllo has a rather low self-esteem and a tendency to dismiss or downplay his own strengths. Having grown up largely in an environment where he was the powerless blank slave in a society of mages, he has a skewed perspective on what gives a person worth, and sees his lack of skills and talents outside bleeding as a mark against himself. (Though this is something he eventually moves past, with help from his loved ones and the acquisition of baker training- a worthwhile trade with which he can support his family.) Relationships Zuzanna Panem née Gorski/Starek The Meltaiman archmage was Phyllo's first and only true friend in Meltaim. She extended him numerous simple, sincere gestures of kindness, treating him with the humanity that had been denied to him for seven years and reawakening his fragile ability to trust. He in turn fell deeply in love with her, giving her something she'd always wanted; a friend with no strings, who cared for her as she was and not because of her power. Zuzia and Phyllo are in many ways opposites. Phyllo is reserved while his wife is outspoken, humble where she is prideful, and given to caution while Zuzia is rash and bullheaded. This means the two of them often butt heads over their fundamentally different approaches to life, but it also means that the two are very good at balancing one another out. Zuzanna reminds Phyllo of his own worth as a person when he is feeling inadequate, and Phyllo reigns Zuzia in when her rashness and temper start to get the better of her. However, they are both still quite young at the time they elope (Zuzia fourteen and Phyllo sixteen), and that immaturity and inexperience can occasionally get the better of both of them. This manifests in them making mutual errors in judgement that ultimately bite them- such as when they let their hormones get the better of them and Zuzanna became pregnant at barely fifteen, or when they were both failing to properly communicate their intentions and Zuzanna accidentally made Phyllo think she didn't want to be with him anymore. Despite the hardships they face, though, they remain strong in their love for one another and dedicated to the future together that they both sacrificed so much to achieve. They do their best to learn from their mistakes, growing both as a couple and as individuals through their shared experiences. Jozef Niemec Phyllo has no love for his former master, but his owner being the foremost adult figure in his life for much of the later half of his childhood, Phyllo can't help but have been shaped as a person somewhat by Jozef. Namely, in spite of Phyllo's attempts to thwart it by simmering silently in resentment towards Jozef, the mage managed to do a fairly good job crushing his bleeder's self-esteem and making him very afraid of risk taking. There were also any number of small, petty abuses- beating Phyllo as a child when he cried over his dead parents, refusing medical treatment when Phyllo needed it as too expensive, stealing most of the money Phyllo earned at the Starek bakery, and more. Though Phyllo eventually gains a sense of self-worth through his family in Kyth, other traces of Jozef linger throughout the young man's life. He never quite gets over the impulse to freeze meekly when in pain, nor does he lose his complete apathy around blood. These traces of his old master disgust Phyllo when they manifest, and he comforts himself as best he can with the knowledge that he is out of Jozef's reach forever. Leif Jade Though like Zuzia Phyllo was initially wary of the Kythian archmage, Phyllo gradually came to respect Leif for his compassion and strength of will. At first Phyllo was slightly distant while Zuzia and Leif bonded over magic lessons, but he too eventually found common ground with Leif in a strong faith in the Woo. Leif reassured Phyllo of his own worth just as Zuzanna always had, and gave the former slave a friend that he cared for and trusted like family- to the point that all if Phyllo's children call Leif "grandpa." Trivia * Phyllo's name comes from the Greek/Valzick word for "leaf." However it is also a subtle joke by Shinko. Though it is not relevant in canon, Phyllo is a pun on the pastry filo, which has a similar pronunciation. This is a nod to the importance of bakeries and baking for the character. * Phyllo speaks Valzick with a very immature, childish sounding vocabulary by native speaker standards- and adult concepts such as alcohol or baby making in fact use not Valzick words at all, but Meltaiman ones. This is because of the very young age at which Phyllo was removed from his birth country. * Phyllo's accent in Kythian is quite thick, and even though he speaks the language fluently, it isn't uncommon for people who don't know him well to need to ask one of his children to translate for him. * Though he doesn't bring it up much, foods that taste or smell strongly of cinnamon give him bad déjà vu because cinnamon is very often used in incense and cleansing soaps in Meltaim. As such, baked goods that utilize a lot of cinnamon tend to be stocked only in small supplies at his bakery, though he will readily prepare more upon request. Category:Medieval characters Category:Non-game characters Category:Medievillians